FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT NEW GROUP - PAGE 4

WASHINGTON -- If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Bil Clinton and his middle-road Democratic colleagues who pulled their party to the center this year should feel highly flattered by the latest development in the opposition party.The formation of a new Republican Majority Coalition by a notable group of GOP moderates and fiscal conservatives to rescue the GOP from religious-right excesses is much like the creation by Clinton and others of the Democratic Leadership Council to counter the excesses of New Deal liberalism.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blakesays the new organizers she has selected for September's Baltimore Grand Prix - including a member of the legendary Andretti family - "have what it takes to move forward and make this world-class sporting event successful for Baltimore. " Isn't that what she said about the last group of people she brought in to save the race? That the lead promoter, Dale Dillon, was a race-savior who would make sure everything went smoothly this year? (Unless, as it happened, he stopped talking to his Baltimore-based partners and dropped off the face of the Earth?

Does Baltimore need another group of businessmen to examine the city's business climate? Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke apparently believes the current organizations are not doing the job. He appointed a 40-member group -- called the Development Incentives Task Force -- to examine what programs are needed to retain and attract business and improve the city's general business conditions. This group may be just what is needed at this time.These are unhappy times for city companies. It may be a result of the nation's weak economy, but a sense of malaise permeates the city.

There's no other way to describe it: The Butta commission was massacred by the 1993 General Assembly. Out of 42 bills submitted to streamline and economize government, virtually lTC everything of substance was rejected. So much for the concern of senators and delegates for making state government more efficient and less costly to taxpayers.Lawmakers were in no mood to rock the boat. Public employee unions effectively opposed the bills. So did other affected interest groups. Since there was no countervailing public clamor for government overhaul, the Butta bills never had a chance.

A group of 12 Hispanic business people and community activists has begun meeting in hopes of creating a nonprofit corporation that could help provide technical assistance and low-interest loans to Latino entrepreneurs in Baltimore.Participants say they hope the corporation will replace the Hispanic Business Association, a group of Hispanic business people that has been criticized as ineffective and divided since its founding a year ago.Five of the 12 participants in the discussions were members of that association.

When a story lumps Thomas Jefferson, Renaissance madrigals, a world-renowned master illusionist, African drumming, Irish folk songs, ice dancing and Russian choral music together in the same paragraph, it can only mean one thing: First Night is back.For the fourth straight New Year's Eve, downtown Annapolis, from the West Street corridor to St. John's College to the City Dock, will play host to a diverse, family-oriented, nonalcoholic celebration of the arts to usher in the new year.As in the past, a single $8 button ($12 if purchased after Dec. 15)

By Jeff Zrebiec and Jon Meoli and The Baltimore Sun | September 18, 2014

The last time Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco faced a Mike Pettine-led defense, he had arguably the worst game of his career . Pettine, a former Ravens assistant, was Buffalo's defensive coordinator last year, when his Bills defense had five interceptions in a 23-20 victory. Pettine, now the Browns head coach, said it wouldn't make sense to follow that day's game plan Sunday. “It's not applicable, just because it's a different [offensive] coordinator,” he said. “The system is completely different.

Carroll County's volunteer emergency workers approved yesterday a proposal designed to strengthen their political power by uniting three groups representing firefighters, fire chiefs and paramedics. The move to combine the organization representing the county's 14 fire chiefs and one for paramedics with the Carroll County Volunteer Firemen's Association was approved by a 51-13 vote at the association's 80th annual convention in Union Bridge. After a brief discussion in which John Korman, a Hampstead delegate and former association president, argued unsuccessfully that the vote ran against bylaws, outgoing association President C. Douglas Bostian called for a vote by secret ballot.

THIS NEW group with "unthinkable" propositions for our society had the nerve to meet in the formal, gold-encrusted meeting room of the Russell Senate Office building in Washington -- inside the traditional symbol of "America." What gall! Everybody knows what is important in America today, right? Forgive me, I meant "rights"! Oh, I don't mean the old right to vote or right to a free trial. We are sophisticated people now. We talk about the right of children to sue their parents, the right to the recognition of sodomy, the right to demand a jury trial while equally demanding the right not to serve on a jury oneself.